Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

In after Baud. Damn.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The revolution will be supervised.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Let there be snark.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Saturday Morning Cartoon Open Thread: Tragedy Edition

Saturday Morning Cartoon Open Thread: Tragedy Edition

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I know, I know, it’s been four whole days, why can’t I just get over it?!?…

abu ghraib self torture toles
(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)

torture tmi danziger
(Jeff Danziger’s website)

torture libertys torch luckovich
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

torture global stature davies
(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

torture should be secret rall
(Ted Rall’s website)

torture decorate dick cheney
(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)

torture is dick cheney ohman
(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

torture gop landslide eagan
(Tim Eagan via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  1. 1.

    eemom

    I know, I know, it’s been four whole days, why can’t I just get over it?!?…

    Oh, so you’re the victim? Gotcha.

  2. 2.

    tsquared2001

    @eemom: I am pretty sure that was not what she meant.

    But come the fuck on. We all live in this country and these motherfuckers are doing that completely horrible sinful shit that makes you go into Mom mode “I’m so disappointed, you can do better, stop fucking up”.

    Thanks, Anne. I only seen a couple of these comics because this torture shit – I had to go offline for a while, decompress with some Mommy blogs.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eemom: Actually, I am. Do you know how many times I have heard Dick Cheney’s voice this week? Granted, it’s only 3 or 4 words before I can hit the mute button, but Jeeezzzz… Fingernails on a chalkboard.

  5. 5.

    tsquared2001

    My boss asked me in 2008 what I wanted from Obama. I said – I would like a president who would stop the US from torturing people and to stop pissing all over the Constitution. That my expectations are so low is a fucking killer.

  7. 7.

    raven

    Here’s what my T-Bagger SIL thinks:

    “Radical Islam beheads their prisoners. We pour water on ours. I think we win that Moral Dilemma ‪#‎enoughsaid‬ ‪#‎CIA‬ ‪#‎fauxcontroversy‬”

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @raven: Slowly freezing to death or being beheaded.. Now that’s a moral dilemma. I didn’t realize that we compare ourselves to savages but whatever.

  12. 12.

    tsquared2001

    When, as a country, you can’t all agree that torture is wrong, then that Overton Window has packed up and left no forwarding address.

  13. 13.

    raven

    @Mustang Bobby: And the bitch about is that she is not stupid. She’s a highly sought after cardio nurse who moved into work with pacemakers. I am certain she’s the one that attacked me under my brother’s Facebook page 2 years ago. I have cut all contact except xmas and b-day gifts for their kids. Bitch is fucking sick.

  14. 14.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: I’ve got an uncle like that: proto-typical crazy right-winger Fox watcher Rush listener. He goes through life believing he does know all the ten-word answers. Must be nice.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @tsquared2001: So I see you are now the person who has lost all sense of humor that nobody wants to talk to. Your choice. As to fvcking off, I’m pretty sure you aren’t screaming at the TV when ever Colbert or Stewart or Louie or whomever come on, so take your over indulgent self righteous outrage and shove it. I’m not impressed.

  20. 20.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hey, the pre-construction meeting was yesterday. They start on the trees Tuesday and excavation for the line after the first. I live the project manager and the contractor, seemed like good dudes.

  22. 22.

    geg6

    Shit is fucked up and shit. The world is too depressing for me right now. Thank the FSM for puppehs.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Watching the local news, seems we had a tornado in South LA(formerly South Central). It didn’t seem to do much damage or hurt anyone, pretty small one. Good thing it didn’t hit my dead tree.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Coooollll…. Once things get rolling, they shouldn’t stop unless something unexpected comes up. But after this length of time and investigation, there better NOT be anything unexpected.

  26. 26.

    Keith G

    @eemom: I think all United States citizens are victims of past and current governments that care a whole lot less about civil liberties than they ought to.

    When the government apparatus in St Louis County and in New York City turned their back on vicious crimes committed against citizens I think we all were victims – to a lesser degree than the actual dead bodies and their families – but victims of a goverence that has grown even more harsh and cruel than I ever thought it could be at this date in history. The villains were allowed to walk away free.

    Likewise, the current the actions of our current president is allowing villains who tortured and murdered to walk away free in our name. Yes, this is also on us.

  27. 27.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: So, it’s like what Hayden said. If the rest of the world tortured like we do the world would be a better place. Wonder if he tried that on the Mrs. when he got home; “Honey you’re kinda fat, but not as fat as Marge down the street”.

  28. 28.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Just the possibility of hitting rock in that 18ft trench. The contractor came over after the meeting and said he has been ready to go for 2 months but the contractual shit held it up.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Morality is her relative? I thought she was divorced from him. Oh wait a minute, it’s Reality she’s divorced from.

  34. 34.

    RSA

    @raven: This sort of moral reasoning is so weak that even children know it’s wrong.

    “Johnny, stop hitting your little brother.”
    “But Mom… Dick down the street pushed his brother down the stairs.”
    “Well, okay then.”

  35. 35.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @JPL: That torturers and war criminals are treated to respectful, friendly air time infuriates me. I plan to contact the shows and the sponsors of the segments these people are in and ask them if this is what they want to be associated with.

  38. 38.

    jayboat

    Logic and reason get compartmentalized during the act of lying to oneself.

    We seem to improve with practice, also, too.

  39. 39.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @raven: Maybe she’s persuadable given enough time.

    This link may help:

    Prosecution of Waterboarding as Torture Goes Back to 1898 – Wallach notes that after World War II, several Japanese soldiers were tried and executed for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war. One former POW, Lieutenant Chase Nielsen, testified: “I was given several types of torture.… I was given what they call the water cure.… Well, I felt more or less like I was drowning… just gasping between life and death.” The waterboarding of POWs was one of the driving forces behind the US’s organization of war crimes trials for senior Japanese military and civilian officials. Wallach writes: “Leading members of Japan’s military and government elite were charged, among their many other crimes, with torturing Allied military personnel and civilians. The principal proof upon which their torture convictions were based was conduct that we would now call waterboarding.” (Weeks later, torture opponent Senator John McCain will cite the Japanese prosecutions in a presidential debate—see November 29, 2007). Wallach notes that as far back as 1898, US soldiers were court-martialed for waterboarding Filipino guerrillas during the Spanish-American War. More recently, a group of Filipino citizens sued, in a US district court, the estate of former Phillipine President Ferdinand Marcos, claiming they had been waterboarded and subjected to other tortures. The court awarded the plaintiffs $766 million in damages, and wrote: “[T]he plaintiffs experienced human rights violations including, but not limited to… the water cure, where a cloth was placed over the detainee’s mouth and nose, and water producing a drowning sensation.” In 1983, a Texas sheriff and three of his deputies were convicted of violating prisoners’ civil rights by subjecting them to a procedure similar to waterboarding (see 1983). Wallach concludes: “We know that US military tribunals and US judges have examined certain types of water-based interrogation and found that they constituted torture. That’s a lesson worth learning. The study of law is, after all, largely the study of history. The law of war is no different. This history should be of value to those who seek to understand what the law is—as well as what it ought to be.” [WASHINGTON POST, 11/4/2007]

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    Zinsky

    @raven Have your Teabagger SIL go on Wikipedia and search for “Dilwar”. Dilwar was a completely innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured to death at Bagram AFB. Let me repeat that – HE WAS TORTURED TO DEATH!

    I don’t know about you, but I would rather have my head cut off, which would mean instant death, than being beaten for days until my legs were “pulpified”. Which is more merciful?

  43. 43.

    Fred

    I recall seeing an interview of a US soldier in Vietnam (1970s) who described water torture of Vietcong prisoners of war held by the US. They covered the face with a towel and poured soapy water over it. Seems the victim would breath in the suds and afterwards the soap bubbles would cause pneumonia, often fatal.
    This admission was made on a national news program with no following commentary that it was outrageous or illegal.
    I doubt the orders to do this came from the White House but then Dick Nixon and Spiro Agnew were in office then so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Nixon was a hateful man but can’t hold a candle to GW Bush and Dick Cheney in the mean department. Did Bush and Cheney know? Dam right they knew. They ordered it and watched the tapes. Made their peckers hard, I bet. Vile little men.

  45. 45.

    Mike in NC

    I have 50 bucks that says the usual suspects will appear on the worthless Sunday morning talk shows to defend torture and the CIA, and nobody will be brought out to criticize them.

  46. 46.

    beth

    @Mike in NC: I think Dick Cheney is on Meet the Press this Sunday and waterboarding won’t have anything on the tongue bath I’m sure Chuck Todd will give him.

  47. 47.

    Cervantes

    @Fred:

    I recall seeing an interview of a US soldier in Vietnam (1970s) who described water torture of Vietcong prisoners of war held by the US.

    Yes, but it got a lot worse than that. First, the definition of “Vietcong” was extremely elastic. And besides, water torture was practically a mercy compared to some of the other things we (and they) did.

  49. 49.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    @raven:
    Probably if she was my SIL I would not think “she should be waterboarded until she begs for beheading to make it stop,” but she’s not so I do.

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    Dunno, I kinda felt the same way about the title. Had no idea it has been controversial for Ann to post about torture here. It sure seems like a friendly space to be anti-torture and pro some level of consequences.

  51. 51.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    It would be some time before I fully realized that the United States sees little need for diplomacy; power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy. This is why the weak are so deeply concerned with the democratic principle of the sovereign equality of states, as a means of providing some small measure of equality for that which is not equal in fact. Coming from a developing country, I was trained extensively in international law and diplomacy and mistakenly assumed that the great powers, especially the United States, also trained their representatives in diplomacy and accepted the value of it. But the Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States. Diplomacy is perceived by an imperial power as a waste of time and prestige and a sign of weakness.

    Boutros Boutros-Gail summed it up.

  53. 53.

    J R in WV

    I won’t ever see someone who approves of torture as a fellow human being. The more you support torture the less human you are.

    I can’t talk about it any more than just saying that. Horrific that our country has been degraded by those monsters! The end.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The host, Bret Baier, asked Cheney about Bush’s reported discomfort when told of a detainee’s having been chained to a dungeon ceiling, clothed only in a diaper, and forced to urinate and defecate on himself. “What are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks and say ‘Please, please, tell us what you know’?” Cheney said. “Of course not. We did exactly what needed to be done in order to catch those who were guilty on 9/11 and prevent a further attack, and we were successful on both parts.”

    It was barely a year ago that Politico, the corporate incarnation of Broderism and the Amazon of Beltway media, hosted a fawning coffee klatsch for not just Cheney, but for reasons still not clear his equally loathsome but politically irrelevant wife and daughter.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    The stench of absolute safety is not a pleasant smell. And it never is anyway. Just like fairness, life isn’t safe. All kinds of things can kill you and in the end you die anyway. We can minimize the obviously stupid things, fertilizer plants that blow up, houses that fall down in a minimum earthquake, drunk drivers, texting…. But the biggest thing we can’t seem to change is human stupidity or venality. Not that I think we are trying very hard, at least in this country.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “What are we supposed to do? Kiss him on both cheeks and say ‘Please, please, tell us what you know’?”

    Actually, Dick, as the professional interrogators tried to tell you over and over again, you can usually get the information more quickly and get more accurate information by using non-coercive methods. Just because torture makes you feel good doesn’t mean it works.

    And, along those lines, can I just say what a stupid fucking idea it is for the head of the ACLU to say that everyone involved in torture should be pardoned because at least then their crimes are on the record, or some idiotic thing? Gosh, that sure helped keep the pardoned Iran-Contra figures out of government, didn’t it? Dumbfuck.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    On the surface it sure sounds asinine. But being the ACLU(which everyone who cares should belong to, IMHO) I’d bet he’s a lawyer and I’d bet there are enough laws to protect those that had been high up in power. Or at least keep them away from any kind of punishment till after they die. A pardon from their own country gives the international law people something to hang their hats on and if that’s all we will ever get, isn’t that better than nothing? I want President Obama to send the DOJ after them but I realize that even if they went to court tomorrow Bush and Chenny will never suffer for it. Nor will the director of the CIA or any other high ranking person. The case would last for years and tear the country apart. And in the end none of it would change anything.

    ETA Baby steps, that’s all there ever is. Little tiny ones and every so often baby falls down.

  59. 59.

    Another Holocene Human

    @ruemara: It’s projection. You know, you really can advocate for all that’s just and righteous without all the concern trolling, whining, accusing others of nefarious motives, etc, etc.

  60. 60.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Ruckus: Israel also sought absolute safety and, well, just look at the last 60+ years.

    Living in open societies in the Americas has turned out to be, funny story, a lot safer than an ethnically cleansed walled fortress religio-ethnic state.

  61. 61.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Ruckus: Sounds like he’s at bargaining in the stages of grief because intellectually he’s already resigned to nobody ever getting prosecuted.

    It was a stupid thing to say because much of this is new or at least rekindled for the public as a whole. That’s not what they want to hear right now.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    @Another Holocene Human:
    It will never be what a lot of people want to hear, on either side of the issue. (How there could be 2 sides of this I’ll never understand) But that’s not the point. We spend a lot of time, even on here, wishing for better things politically. But then most of us realize that we will have a hard time getting everything and we accept, if you will, a compromise. Which is politics in a nutshell. Had my lawyer(who had practiced in front of the USSC) once tell me that any settlement that made both sides happy didn’t need lawyers to get there, that any settlement that had one side very happy and the other very unhappy was a bad settlement, and one that had both sides equally unhappy was probably the correct one. The moral? Sometimes the best you can get is a sandwich with shit only on one piece of bread. So what you are left with is a piece of bread and half a shit sandwich. Someone could have put the two halves together.

  63. 63.

    Tree With Water

    The manner in which this country ultimately deals with the scum that tortured in each of our names will make or break our Republican form of government. That is our rendevous with destiny.

    Any person that defends American torture is beneath contempt. Anyone. I have no more respect for those people than I have for child molesters.

  64. 64.

    Fort Geek

    @Mike E: Two years ago, I found myself in the hospital–the morning after the Newtown child murders. My freaking nurse could only focus on teabag “Obama gunna taek mah gunz!!” crap. Not even a word about those kids. Nothing.

    Good thing I only had to deal with her stupid ass that one day shift out of a 10-day stay.

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